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Half-real

Jesper Juul • 2005 • The MIT Press

Author: Jesper Juul
First published: 2005
Publisher: The MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262101103

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Lore

Why it matters

This book offers an academic exploration into the intersection of rules and fiction, helping readers understand how games bridge the gap between abstract systems and imaginative worlds. It serves as a foundational text for those interested in the formal mechanics that define the experience of playing.

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Provenance

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Half-real was published by The MIT Press in 2005 as a foundational text in the emerging field of ludology, or game studies. Written by Danish video game researcher Jesper Juul, the book emerged from a period of intense academic inquiry into the nature of video games, specifically addressing the tension between the formal rules of games and the fictional worlds they construct. It serves as a scholarly attempt to reconcile the structuralist view of games as systems with the representational elements that allow players to suspend their disbelief.

Juul designed the book to move beyond the then-prevalent debates that insisted games were either purely narrative or purely mechanical experiences. By arguing that games function as 'half-real' entities—existing simultaneously as rigid rule-sets and imaginative spaces—he provided a framework for analyzing how players navigate game fiction. Upon its release, the work was well-received within academic circles for its clarity and rigor, becoming a core text for students and theorists attempting to categorize the dual identity of digital play.

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Half-real is a book in the Books catalog on collecto.rs. Jesper Juul • 2005 • The MIT Press. Catalog data is sourced from Open Library. No public books collectors track this one yet — adding yours would make you the first on collecto.rs.

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